The online publication Organizing Upgrade is offering a space for progressive activists and organizers to reflect and learn from their work.
According to Editor Rishi Awatramani, the project was born 12 years ago out of a need to create a space to stop and recharge for left organizers involved in day-to-day mass organizing. “There were not spaces to do active reflection, theorization and the drawing out of lessons from our work,” said Awatramani.
Organizing Upgrade created that space.
Relaunching to meet the challenges of Trump
The group relaunched in 2017 to accommodate a surge in activism and progressive agitation in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election. A main goal is to tie that energy to an electoral strategy.
“What those folks saw again in that period was that the key need was to think through the work,” said Awatramani. “And the need to link electoral work with organizing efforts.”
The threats presented by Trump— a rollback of environmental laws, deregulation and an assault on basic rights for women and marginalized communities—sparked a reimagining of the site’s mission. Organizing Upgrade has worked to play a strong defense against the Trump administration while providing the opportunity to grow a class-conscious movement that also centers racial and immigrant justice.
“We really believe the linkage between class and race is important,” Awatramani said.
A mission for mass power
As the group says in its mission statement, it sees itself as “part of the political trend that is working to build left inside-outside projects that enable us to wield mass people power, both at the ballot box and in the streets.”
Awatramani is a good fit for that role. He has a background in electoral politics, having worked with New Virginia Majority, the group working to develop a progressive state legislature in Virginia. He also worked for housing rights organization Just Cause Oakland.
“I’m an organizer, primarily,” said Awatramani.
Future plans
Going forward, Organizing Upgrade hopes to continue its work to provide a place to link organizers with the ideological and systemic changes their work is pointed at. “Our strategy is to continue to be a trade journal and space for reflection of the work of people invested in building a broad progressive front with full active engagement of the left,” said Awatramani.
Organizing Upgrade intends to continue pushing organizers to discover more about their peers and their work, Awatramani told Blue Tent, and that reflection will develop into a way for groups and individuals to learn from one another.
The outlet is also looking to develop new ways to reach younger audiences—podcasts and video—in order to remain relevant and connected.
“A lot of us who are instrumentally involved are in the mid-30s and above generation, so we’re trying to stay close to the most dynamic young movements,” Awatramani said. “We want to deepen our utility to those parts of the movement, too.”
